CARSON, Calif. – Time and time again, Nick Rimando and the Real Salt Lake defense bailed out the team’s struggling attack during their 1-0 defeat to the LA Galaxy, but the ‘keeper understands that Salt Lake will need more if they’re to best LA in the Western Conference Semifinal second leg at Rio Tinto Stadium on Thursday.

Rimando may not have made an enormous save total as he tallied just a pair of stops, but the goalkeeper was once again steady as he was able to marshal an RSL back four that kept the Galaxy off the board until Sean Franklin’s 31-yard strike in the 48th minute.

“I think we did a great job defending for fifty, sixty minutes and then we started to cheat a little bit. You saw they got a lot of chances from us not wanting to get back and track back to some of their players from bad giveaways,” said Rimando. “To win this series, everyone has to pitch in and play together, offensively and defensively and we know that we can play very, very good at home and we have to continue to do that and show that on Thursday.”

“I think it’s a fantastic result for us,” Rimando added. “Looking back at the chances they had, 1-0 at halftime, I’m happy with it because it could have been a lot worse and we just have to build on and watching tape on what we have to do better.”

But for RSL to advance for the Western Conference Final, Rimando admits that the team must be sharper in the final third after failing to test LA goalkeeper Jaime Penedo, who also made just two saves.

“We got to possess the ball, create some chances and not give the ball away in dangerous spots. As you saw, they have dangerous players and I think we got very, very lucky not to get scored on a lot more. I don’t think they were as sharp as they’ve always been up top on their counter attacks and we need to do a lot better possessing the ball and not giving the ball away.”